Dinesh and the men brought Pournami back to her father Purushottaman by midnight. Though she was too weak and barely able to walk, she was relieved to be off the hands of Sreekumar. The people of Kaniyankara were on edge all over again. Since Sreekumar got beaten up, there weren't any other repercussions for the matter, except occasional skirmishes between their men at different places in the village. Many were getting upset and irritated that in the fight between the two families, the innocent villagers were getting harassed. Pranav decided to hide his feelings for the time-being and went back to the usual business with the rest of the brothers, but he suspected that it was calm only on the surface. A few days later, Aniruddhan came to Vishnu who was at the timber yard inspecting the fresh shipment of teak with one of his men.
"Did you get the money from the furniture store?" asked Vishnu.
"Yes, its in this bag, 5 lakhs in total", replied Aniruddhan.
"Good, keep it in the office. I will take it later", he said to him.
"Kunje, where is Devankunju (Vasudev)?" asked Aniruddhan.
"He went to Thiruvananthapuram. We have to smooth over the unrest in the village with the ministers and police so that we have some support from them in the future", he replied.
"Can I speak to you in private?" he asked him.
Vishnu turned to their timber yard worker and asked him to leave them alone.
"Kunje, I got to know from some trusted sources that Sreekumar is planning a revenge on Pranav, most probably an attempt on his life", said Aniruddhan.
"What?" said Vishnu. "Why is this fellow creating problems when there are none? So what is he planning to do?"
"I do not know for sure, by today evening I will get the details and I will inform you as soon as possible" replied Aniruddhan.
"In case of a terrible situation cropping up, the only person who could control Pranav will be Malathi. If she were here, I am sure he won't rush into foolish things", observed Vishnu.
"But it may be dangerous for her here", said Aniruddhan.
"Try to inform her that something is going to happen soon. I know that it will only make her worried, but I don't want to keep her in the dark either", said Vishnu.
"I will do the needful", said Aniruddhan and left.
***
Pranav was at the Kalarikkal granary that evening, taking stock of the remaining paddy from the previous harvest when one of the men from the village came to inform him, "Sreekumar has kidnapped Karthikeyan and Dineshkunju had gone to rescue him from the abandoned house in the south of the village".
"What? When?" asked Pranav.
"A few minutes back, they might harm him. You have to rescue them", said the man.
There were three men with Pranav at that time. He said to them, "One of you go home and inform the family and the rest come with me". He then headed to his jeep to get to the location.
The man sent to Kalarikkal, rushed as soon as possible on his bike and when he reached there he saw Keshavanunni sitting on the porch reading a book.
"Angune (sir), Dineshkunju..." he stopped in his tracks when he saw Dinesh coming out of the house.
"Yes, what about me?" asked Dinesh, he was followed by Karthikeyan who was munching on banana chips looking nonchalant.
"Ente eeshwara (my God). Kunje, someone came and informed Pranavkunju that you had gone to rescue Karthikeyankunju from the abandoned house in the south of the village. He has gone there to help you, I think its a trap to harm him", said the man.
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Malathi charitham (The history of Malathi) (Kalarikkal series - 2)
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